User Role
A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment
An instructional website by the developer of mh370wiki.net - a MediaWiki site about Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Registered users are able to:
- create new pages
- edit existing pages
- participate in certain polls and discussions in which IPs are not permitted to
- become autoconfirmed after 4 days and thereby edit semi-protected pages
- add pages to their watchlist
- among others.
Source: Project:Users https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Users
Using MediaWiki
As the owner of a hosted MediaWiki-based website you have the roles of systems administrator, administrator, interface administrator and finally - User.
When the website is set up, installed, configured, customised etc., and has functioning templates, a category hierarchy, style guide to match custom CSS in Common.css and standard page layouts, etc., using MediaWiki becomes routine.
I can't comment on wikitext, because I don't use it. The mh370wiki.net website is built using html throughout.
So eventually, 'how to use MediaWiki' can be replaced by 'how to add content', 'how to add a page to a category', 'how to add links', and how to do all the other mundane tasks that a required to build a website.
Using MediaWiki can be time-consuming and addictive, frustrating but rewarding. It is different from WordPress. It is not as simple as many of the website-building utilities made available by hosting services. It can be straightforward or complex, challenging to use but simple when practiced.
Design Tips for Users
The mh370wiki.net website has been developed over the past decade, so in that context I have been using MediaWiki for some time. I also have other MediaWiki-based websites.
One of the custom namespaces contains an online Manual, like a set of Support articles or Help. Even though it is my own site, I do not remember how (or why) I did things. The Help section will also be necessary for anyone else using the site. So one of the tips to make life easier is to document what you do, add comments within pages, add comments within Common.css, and create both a style guide and a user manual.
Another practice I have is journalling. I write notes, draw diagrams, record procedures in spiral-bound note books, like a diary. I number these journals so I now have a set - for each website - and can refer back to see what was added or changed, what problems occurred and how they were solved, and refer to lists of ideas for future content. A User is expected to be a subject-matter-expert but adding content to a website requires time: a research phase, planning, conforming to a website style, presenting that information and re-working it until, like a piece of art, it is 'finished'. An off-line journal is like a record of that process and, to me at least, helpful to refine ideas before implementing them.
This website is different from the mh370wiki.net website in many ways:-
- The mh370wiki.net website is multi-layered with content in both public and hidden namespaces. And the scope of the project has grown from a central core of data in what I visualise as concentric circles as related content has been added.
- This mw-mh370.wiki website, however was always intended to have a limited and focussed scope - it is a resource about MediaWiki, based on the experience of developing the mh370wiki.net website, and using that site for examples. But intended for people like me, using MediaWiki to build a website in a hosted environment.
The site structure is divided into four topics: Processes, Roles, Features and Hosting. But behind the scenes would be a complex matrix where these are interlinked, by on-page links and by Categories. It will take time to implement that matrix; the first step is to get some content on each page; on review the relationships between Roles and Processes, or Processes and Features, will be enhanced. - In the mh370wiki.net website vast amounts of source material is deconstructed. On this site a small amount of core information is provided and the reader is given outward links to the official MediaWiki documentation.
- The mh370wiki.net website is factual and thoroughly referenced. This website is more personal, comments and ideas are based on experience; anecdotes and problems are based on real events.
Tip: define a purpose, develop a style, identify the target audience, and as a User get into the mindset that will communicate effectively with the reader.
Back to the fundamental questions: 'how to use MediaWiki' or 'how to add content', 'how to add a page to a category', and 'how to add links':-
- Adding a page is as simple as writing the page name into the search box (top right) and press Enter. If the page does not exist then click on 'create this page'. Or add a link to the page from within an existing article. If the page does not exist then the link will be red. Click on it to open a new page.
- A page can be added to a category simply by adding a link, usually at the bottom of a page but it doesn't actually matter, where the link includes the Category namespace. So it looks like this
[[Category:categoryname]].
If the category does not exist the link will be red. Click on it to open a new page in the category namespace and add a link to a 'parent' category. - Any word or phrase can be linked to another page. But page names always default to an upper-case letter at the beginning of the name. So a link to analytics will be red because there is no corresponding page. If you use the chain-link symbol in the Editor menu the dialogue box will indicate whether a link destination exists or not. This link to analytics works because the code correctly identifies the destination while displaying the lower-case word
[[Analytics|analytics]].
Articles which relate to MediaWiki User
Articles which relate to MediaWiki User are included in Category:User.
The CategoryTree Extension enables a listing of relevant sub-categories and pages:-
Links
- MediaWiki User Guide
- https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User_Guide
- Editing Wikitext
- https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Editing_Wikitext